Boko Haram Just Declared A 'Caliphate' In Nigeria, The Second One This Summer

FILE - This file image made available Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2012, taken from video posted by Boko Haram sympathizers, shows the leader of the radical Islamist sect Imam Abubakar Shekau. Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for the April 15, 2014, mass abduction of nearly 300 teenage schoolgirls in northeast Nigeria. Even before the kidnapping, the U.S. government was offering up to a $7 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Shekau, whom the U.S. has labeled a specially designated global terrorist. (AP Photo/File)

Nigeria's Boko Haram have become the second Islamist militant group in just two months to declare a "caliphate", in a video message from its leader.

The news agency AFP obtained a video shot in the northeast Nigerian town of Gwoza, in Borno state, which shows leader Abubakar Shekau declaing a new caliphate, an Islamic state, in the city.

"Thanks be to Allah who gave victory to our brethren in Gwoza and made it part of the Islamic caliphate," Abubakar Shekau said in the 52-minute video, according to AFP. "By the grace of Allah we will not leave the town. We have come to stay."

Gwoza is now "nothing to do with Nigeria" he said. The group, designated a terror organisation by the US, control large chunks of territory in Borno state and some in the neighbouring Yobe state.

"By the grace of Allah we will not leave the town. We have come to stay," said Shekau, who has been designated a global terrorist by the United States and sanctioned by the UN Security Council.

The United Nations humanitarian office (OCHA) earlier this month confirmed reports that Gwoza was under rebel control.

Boko Haram is also believed to be in control of other areas near Gwoza in southern Borno, as well as large swathes of territory in northern Borno and at least one town in neighbouring Yobe state. Nigerian soldiers have reportedly refused to deploy to retake the town, because of a lack of adequate weapons.

A video which Boko Haram claim show the missing Nigerian schoolgirls, kidnapped earlier this year

But Boko Haram is technically only a nickname. Their preferred name is Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'awati Wal-Jihad, which means "people committed to the propagation of the prophet's teachings and jihad".

In June, the group known as Isis or Isil which controls vast swathes of eastern Syrian and northern Iraq declared that territory a caliphate, naming itself Islamic State. Its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, is referred to as Caliph Ibrahim. The Caliphate, where Shia Muslims, Christians and minority sects have been persecuted, massacred or forced to flee, has no international recognition.